Eclipse
by EmCrasher
Summary: Marinette wants to get to know Adrien more, more importantly wants to become a close friend of his to help him through his difficult times. What she doesn't know however, is that she is the one who needs the help, and a black cat superhero might be the only one able to save her. After all no matter how strong, all superheros have their own eclipses, right?


**I didn't realize till I was about to post this that the summary sounds like it's a MariChat fanfic lol. It's not a dedicated MariChat fic, but I will still cover all four ships. Because what kind of Miraculous fan am I if I don't right? ;P anyways, I've been working on this fic for two months now. I have an outline of what I want the chapters to be about, but I also expect to come up with new ideas as I go along. I'm already writing chapter 2, so expect that hopefully before June. Hope you guys enjoy! :)**

* * *

Marinette Dupain-Cheng couldn't help but feel concerned as she watched the blond hair boy sitting in front of her. He wasn't his normal self today, and he wasn't either yesterday. She didn't know why, and she was too afraid to ask, worried that he might yell at her for whatever reason. Marinette felt that she wasn't the confidence type, which was ridiculous to Tikki. Mask or no mask, she actually was a confident person. The truth of the matter was a certain young boy she loved tended to take that away from her as well as her breath temporarily. She glanced over at Alya who was writing something down on the paper in front of her. The heroine leaned toward her slightly and whispered, "Do you have any idea why Adrien can be so down all of a sudden?"

Alya looked up to take a peek at Adrien then glanced over at her friend and replied whispering back, "I'm afraid not, I'm sorry Marinette. Maybe you can try to help though. Invite him to see a movie or something." She slipped a grin on her face, "It will give you a chance to be alone with him."

Normally when Alya would suggest things like that she would freak out and not even suggest the idea. But seeing her friend looking gloomy, she didn't allow her thoughts to get in the way of it. She couldn't help but think about yesterday though. What her parents talked to her about.

* * *

"So, the boy's name is Adrien, right Marinette?" Her father asked as the family sat down in the living room to enjoy their daily routine of drinking tea together.

She nodded in reply.

"What do you know about him?"

Marinette thought for a moment, "Well, he's really sweet, and kind. He acts like a great gentlemen. He has this amazing smile too!" She started to slip into a daydream until her father spoke.

"And?"

She was silent. She couldn't think of anything else. Marinette sighed in defeat realizing that her father cornered her purposely in this conversation.

"What exactly made you realize that you had feelings for him?" Her mother asked joining in.

"Well.." Marinette looked down at the tea in her hands that faintly showed her reflection. She tapped the side of the teacup making the liquid ripple ever so slightly. "I realized it when it was a rainy day and he offered me his umbrella. He said that he was really just trying to take the gum off my seat. I thought originally he and Chloe did it because he's friends with her but...I don't know. There was just this spark and..this is really embarrassing to talk about." She blushed a little bit and covered her face with her free hand.

"Nonsense, trust me, we ALL get moments like this and I know it can be embarrassing to talk about. But it's good to talk about these things. Otherwise, how can your parents help you when stuff like this arises?" Sabine gestured her hands towards herself and Tom.

"Sure, I understand that." Marinette replied and took a sip of her tea trying to hide the blush on her face a bit.

She always told her parents everything, but that didn't mean she didn't have moments where she hesitated to tell them. Her crush on Adrien was a fine example. It felt rather personal to her, but she knew that it would be good for her benefit to tell them. Well, actually, it was Tikki's idea.

"Let me tell you something Marinette," her mother continued. Tom picked up his cup of tea and relaxed into the big chair he was sitting in. "Everybody has weaknesses. I have them, your father has them," she gestured a hand towards her daughter, "and you too have them. Even Adrien has them. It's a fact of human life."

The heroine was about to speak up but her mother continued. "Do you think that it's also important to find out a person's weaknesses just as much?"

Those words silenced whatever she was going to say in reply. Marinette looked down at the cup of tea in her hands. She was the naive one at the table, and she hated it. But nevertheless she would swallow up all the information her parents were giving her, knowing it would be very helpful in the future.

'I suppose so.." she weakly replied avoiding her parents gaze. In a way, her silence and avoiding eye contact represented respect to her parents who were three times her age and wiser.

"I know you've heard this story before, but when I met your father, he was prideful." She giggled a bit as memories came to her mind, "but not in a bad way, instead in a young naive way. He would constantly show off and try to impress me in everyway he could think of."

Tom laughed, "Yep! I was a very naive teenager. The moment I laid eyes on your mom, I fell in love with her."

Marinette looked up and smiled, giggling a bit too. "It was love at first sight?"

Her father replied while setting down his tea on the table. "It was, but it wasn't true love of course."

The secret superhero turned her a head a bit in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sabine took a biscuit from the table and took a bite, eating it before speaking, "What he means is that there is no such thing as love at first sight. It's only infatuation, not love."

"Three words," Tom lifted up three fingers from his right hand one by one, "Attraction, Infatuation, and Love. Attraction is based on what you see. Infatuation is based on what you feel. And love is based on what you know. When I first met your mom, what I felt was infatuation. My love for her was only based on my feelings, I didn't know much about her." He also took a biscuit from the table and spoke before eating it, "It wasn't until that I really got to know your mother, her strengths and weaknesses, that I felt true love for her."

"Same with your father," Sabine said, "I didn't get feelings for him at first like he did, but once I got to know him better, that's when I also started to feel true love. Marinette, you're a naive young teenager, and I don't say that in a bad way. I say it as in you still have a long ways before you hit emotional maturity. I got crushes on guys all the time-"

"But I don't get crushes on many guys!" Marinette interrupted folding her arms, "most of them are stupid as it."

Tom and Sabine looked at each other and smiled.

"We weren't saying that sweetheart," her father said sitting up straight in his chair, "and I'm glad to see that you're smart enough to not fall for just any guy. When Adrien came over that one time to practice for that game competition, he seemed like a very nice young man. I can see why you like him."

"But getting back to the point, your father and I are trying to say that what you're experiencing right now is infatuation. You said that he is very kind and gentlemen like, and what's not to like about that! I can easily understand how you might easily like someone as that." Sabine took a sip of her tea. "But you don't know much about him. For example, does he listen to his parents? How does act around other people? Does he have a good amount of individual responsibility and take care of himself? Is it possible, that he could be living a double life?"

"Mom! Adrien wouldn't be living a double life!" Marinette countered.

"How do you know that?" She asked, slipping a grin on her face.

Marinette quickly took a cookie from the plate on the table while still laying her eyes on her mom with a slight annoyed look.

"So what are you guys trying to say?" Marinette inquired, trying to not make it sound in a rude way.

"Get to know the lad more Marinette. It's important to see one's strengths, but more relevant to see one's weaknesses. Get to know him as a whole." Tom stated gesturing with his hands to form a circle.

Her mother jumped in clapping her hands together, "You can even invite him over for dinner!"

"GAHHH I-INVITE HIM OVER FOR D-DINNER?" Marinette yelled and stuttered, even stumbling a bit in her chair spilling some of her tea. This was so embarrassing. "B-but I-" She reached over for the napkins on the table and quickly applied pressure on the area of the couch she spilled tea. It was a small mess thank goodness.

"Getting to know Adrien better will also help you get over your stuttering too," Tom grinned wide. "You got that from me unfortunately!" he chuckled.

"Really? Aw man," the blue highlighted hair girl covered her face with her hands and groaned, "Why do I have to have this problem, it's really embarrassing! I would like to just have a normal conversation with him for once!" She threw her arms up in the air exaggerating.

Her parents laughed before Tom spoke again, "Just remember sweetheart, real love is based-"

* * *

"-on what you know." Marinette whispered to herself coming back to the reality of sitting in the classroom. Out of the year and a half she's know him, that's the problem. She doesn't know him truly. She knew that was her fault though, since she always stuttered around him and would always be so nervous to talk to him, let alone just standing next to him. She had to be concentrated on something important just to act normal around him, and it was frustrating. She had to get rid of that weakness of hers, she had to get to kno-

The bell rang suddenly causing her to jump a little bit in her seat. She was so deep in thought that the loud noise startled her. Everybody rushed to put their belongings away.

"Now remember class!" Ms. Bustier shouted, "Don't forget to read chapters ten through fifteen of the story and make sure to answer ALL the questions in the packet! I will not accept your work if you skip anything! Kim," the teacher slipped out a grin as the teenager groaned.

"Yes, ok! I'll do it this time! Ugh, honestly.." Kim complained as he shoved some papers into his backpack.

Marinette looked up from packing away her things to see that Adrien and Nino already left. She looked over at her friend, "Alya, we need to catch up to them." The two girls put their backpacks over their shoulders.

Alya smiled, having an idea of what her best friend was up to, "Let's go then girl!"

The two teenagers raced down the hallways until they got to the entrance of the school, panting. Marinette looked up to see the two boys down the steps talking.

"Ok, I'm going t-WOAHHH" Marinette's voice dropped along with her body as she tripped down the stairs falling in front of the two boys. Startled by the sudden noise, they looked to see their clumsy classmate groaning on the floor from the sudden accident. They both kneeled down with a worried expression on their face, although Adrien hardly needed to change his expression already.

"Marinette are you ok?" Adrien asked with concern, his eyes grew a little wide.

"Dude that was some fall. Hopefully there's nothing hurting." Nino teased a bit.

"Oh my gosh Marinette!" Alya raced down the stairs to kneel to her friends side.

Marinette lifted herself up with her arms and looked up to see Adrien's beautiful emerald green eyes look at her apprehensively. His eyes devoured the heroine, and she couldn't speak for the life of her, like she found the perfect diamond in a cave.

"Marinette? You ok?" Adrien asked again.

Dang it this was so frustrating. Right when she started to feel confident about talking to Adrien, her clumsy self had to ruin it. Cursing to herself, Marinette shook her head to try to clear her mind. No, she wasn't going to feel defeated again. She had to get over this. She had to get to know Adrien better.

"Um," she started, feeling stiff as she kept looking at him. "Yes..I'm ok, thanks." She slipped a small smile. Adrien offered his hand to her and she looked at it. Slowly she accepted his invitation, and placed her hand over his as the boy pulled her up to stand on her two feet. She was blushing badly now, and she knew it. She could see Nino and Alya grinning in her peripheral vision.

"No problem," the boy replied smiling. She immediately felt better seeing that charming smirk on his face. To her, it felt like she hadn't seen it in forever. Sunshine was raining down once again.

Marinette took a deep breath and smiled, "Um, actually, I wanted to ask you something. All of you." She gestured her hand to her friends.

"I-I thought it would be great if w-we could all meet up for lunch this weekend. We don't really have a lot of time for a lunch break at school, s-so I thought we could get together on the weekend that way we have more time to do whatever."

"Hey that sounds like a great idea!" Alya exclaimed, winking secretly at her best friend. "What do you guys think?"

"I'm down for that! How about you Adrien?" Nino asked placing his hands on his hips.

"Hmm, I think I can do it. It would have to be on Sunday though because I'm busy all day Saturday." He replied.

Marinette smiled brighter, unable to contain the sudden excitement she felt, "That works for me! Alya? Nino?"

"Yep!" Alya gave her friend a thumbs up.

The DJ nodded, "You got it! Where and what time should we meet up?"

"How about Restaurant Le Beaujolais? I've been there a few times with my family. The food there is really good!"

"Sure!" Adrien replied excitedly, finally fully wiping off the melancholy face he had all day, "I've heard it's good too. How about we meet at noon? Not necessarily beating the lunch crowd but we'll still have time to hang out as Marinette suggested."

Marinette clapped her hands together, "Sounds good!" This was great, she finally could spend more time with Adrien. She was going to do it. She was going to show her parents that her and Adrien were going to become close friends. Hopefully.

The model's ride pulled up blankly ending any other conversation the four teens wanted to discuss. Adrien sighed, and Marinette couldn't help but let her smile drop as his had like glass shattering and striking the poor girl's heart. The blond hair boy headed over toward the car, forcing a smile that Marinette knew was just a mask to cover up whatever was bottled up inside of him. He quickly said goodbye to his friends before taking off, as the group of three now watched the car roll down the street.

"Hey Nino?" Marinette asked with concern in her voice, "Do you know what's been wrong with Adrien lately?"

The DJ shrugged, "I'm not sure. I tried talking to him about it but he didn't budge, which is awfully weird for Adrien. He normally is pretty outgoing when it comes to sharing his feelings about something." Nino's phone abruptly vibrated, giving a girls a 'hold on' signal with his hand while answering it.

Marinette looked at her best friend with her expression unchanged. When Adrien was happy, she was happy. When he was sad, she was sad. She couldn't help but feel the same emotion he felt, -besides feeling nervous being around and thinking about him- and it was tearing her heart apart from not knowing what was wrong. It was unfortunate that he was ill-concealed, because it deeply affected her mood.

Why did her feelings for him have to take over her life so much.

But then again, this wasn't real love.

It was just infatuation.

Yeah, infatuation,

What a terrible feeling.

Alya put a hand on her friend's shoulder slipping a smile. "It will be ok," She whispered.

Marinette accepted the red head's sympathy for her and gave a forged smile.

Just like Adrien's.

Just like his dismal atmosphere.

"I got to go," Nino said as he returned his phone to his pocket. The DJ said his goodbyes to the girls and walked off.

Alya looked at the secret heroine, "I have to head home too Mari. I wish I could stay with you but my mom says that she needs my help today."

"Oh, no it's ok Alya." Marinette replied, forcing joy into her voice, "I'll be fine. Go do what you need to do with your mom."

"Hey we'll have fun on Sunday at least, right? I'm sure Adrien will get over whatever he's going through and be the normal cheerful boy you know." Alya said optimistically as she gave Marinette a comforting hug. "Don't hesitate to text me if you want to talk ok?"

Marinette nodded and the two girls said their goodbyes before parting ways. Marinette hoped that Alya was right. After all pain always fades away after awhile, it never lasts permanently. Well, at least it's never permanently dreadful.

* * *

The heroine sighed loudly as she fell back on her bed. She felt emotionally drained enough to go to sleep right now if she wanted to. Quickly she checked her phone. Amazing how tired you could be by doing nothing physically but everything emotionally and mentally.

"16:23.." She read off her phone whispering.

"You ok Marinette?" Tikki asked concerned about the young girl.

"Not really Tikki.." Marinette replied weakly, and threw her arms up in the air. "Ugh, why is that his actions and own emotions have to affect me so much! I don't even know what he's sad about! It's such a roller coaster!" She covered her face with her hands, hiding her eyes as they began to tear up. Her parent's were right. Everything was based on her feelings. She didn't even know what was making him feel miserable, and look at her, it was eating at her.

This was just so confusing..not to mention heart sickening.

"Oh Marinette…" Tikki flew over to face her master, "Everything will be ok. Perhaps Adrien will want to share with you why he's feeling this way once he knows you a bit better." The kwami waited for a response, but didn't receive one. "Mari, look at me."

The defeated heroine hesitated a bit before uncovering her face that refused to burst out into tears. She sniffed, and looked into her kwami's eyes.

"I understand how you feel. As someone who's been alive for thousands of years and been with many different people, the one thing I see that hasn't changed is people's emotions. As a young infatuated teenager, it's ok to feel this way about someone. It's ok to be worried about someone you care about. Don't feel embarrassed, and more importantly defeated because of it." Tikki slipped a small smile and added, "You're a strong person, in all ways, and that's to be commended."

Marinette smiled, truly this time. Immediately she started to feel a little relief from Tikki's uplifting words. She was lucky to have her. She was her lucky charm that didn't disappear like the rest of the objects -or lucky charms- she used to save people. Boy, was that a thought. Is it fair to have a permanent lucky charm?

"Thanks Tikki. And thanks for pushing me to talk to my parent's about Adrien too. I.." She paused, "You were right, they really did help me."

"Your welcome Marinette," Tikki beamed, "It's important for a child to talk to their parent's, especially at this age. Most people don't look at it this way, but a parent is a child's best friend. They are what complete them in life. They are what help you to avoid mistakes and to help you understand what you are going through better. They are your lifesavers."

"Yes truly.."

Tikki could see that Marinette was going into thought again about the boy as her smile started to fade. "You know, it wouldn't hurt to text Adrien to see if he's ok."

With no delay Marinette could feel the butterfly's form in her stomach. "T-Text A-Adrien? Boy Tikki I-I REALLY don't k-know if that's a good i-idea. What if he gets upset from me asking because he just wants to be alone? What if he starts to think of me as a pest?!" Marinette's eyes grew wide as her voice became more vocal, "W-What if ignores me and doesn't text back?!" She landed her face on her pillow, even more exhausted now with her mind running through all the possible scenarios of what could happen.

The kwami couldn't help but giggle at the girl's typical outburst. "Even if he doesn't reply, it's ok. You're just showing that you care, and even if people don't want to talk about something, they still appreciate their friend's concern." Tikki continued in a comforting voice, "Adrien looks at you as his friend Marinette, there isn't anything to be afraid of. It's not like I'm telling you to tell your feelings for him."

The blue highlighted hair girl didn't say anything after that. Sitting up now on her bed, she grew a worried look on her face, yet reaching for her phone anyways. She pulled up Adrien's contact and clicked on the message button revealing a blank screen waiting to be filled with her thoughts and feelings for the boy. She looked over at Tikki nervously.

Tikki gave a huge comforting grin, "Just tell him you noticed he's been down the past few days and hope that he's ok. There's nothing wrong with asking somebody that, everything will be ok!"

Marinette smiled, and started typing out her message on the screen. After she finished she read it again repeatedly -Tikki guessed she must have at least a dozen times- and after hesitating with her finger hovering over the screen, she pushed send. The phone gave a little 'whoop!' sound, notifying that the message had been sent.

* * *

 **Hope you guys enjoyed! Comments are appreciated, and will help my motivation to get chapters out faster!**


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